Our View: The high speed rail hoodwink

It seems as though Californians have finally awakened to the hoodwinking they took over the bullet train ballot trick of 2008 that would have them believe a train could actually be built in California for $68 billion that would carry huge streams of people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in two hours and 40 minutes with no government subsidies.

The price is now over $200 billion and rising,

The two-hour-and-40-minute ride now can be achieved only with a straight-line tunnel from Bakersfield to Pacoima — and no potty breaks in Sand Canyon.

Subsidies are already coming from the federal government with deadlines for spending them.

Truth be told, we like the Bakersfield-to-Pacoima tunnel idea. It bypasses the Santa Clarita Valley, certainly saving many pedestrian deaths, and provides a nice conduit to move much-needed water when the whole bullet train idea swirls down the big porcelain throne.

We want to be positive when we can, but this is like watching an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile and saying, “Well, at least it will be quick.”

A Sacramento judge stopped the sale of bonds because the California High Speed Rail Authority did not have a valid business plan — or maybe no coherent plan at all.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has bailed on the Rube Goldberg project, stating that California should be spending its money on more important things.

There is a petition drive in the works for an anti-bullet-train measure because polls are showing that California voters have followed Elvis out of the building on this folly.Maybe we should be calling It the “Slug Strain.”

High Speed Rail Authority executives themselves are pretending that all is well and are forging ahead. The are supported by the California High Speed Rail Authority Board, whose meetings must resemble the campfire scene from “Blazing Saddles.”

Gov. Jerry Brown remains a public supporter of the concept, even though some are saying he is privately opposed to it and just having a “Moonbeam Relapse.”

Jerry, let’s get a grip. We need a responsible adult to stop this madness. The “Slug Train Wormhole” is sci-fi fiction, like cold fusion.

Yes, Virginia, it’s time, as Newsom says, to move on to more important things.You know, like domesticating Delta smelt. Or closing the beaches to people from Nevada. Or forcing climate oscillation to make up its mind. Or just giving government employees another day off.